Improbable Research

This photograph of a restaurant menu page was taken in Vancouver, BC, in a restaurant a few blocks away from the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It was the only evidence we could find of what appears to be a failed experiment:

National Geographic published an article called “Why Some Poison Frogs Taste Bittersweet When Licked“, which references their earlier report called “For Frog-Licking Scientist, the Tongue Says It All“. It’s based on the study

“Sex-Related Differences in Alkaloid Chemical Defenses of the Dendrobatid Frog Oophaga pumilio from Cayo Nancy, Bocas del Toro, Panama,” Ralph A. Saporito, Maureen A. Donnelly, Anne A. Madden, H. Martin Garraffo and Thomas F. Spande. Natural Products, March 26, 2010, Volume 73, Issue 3, pp 317–321.

(Thanks to investigator Shoichi F for bringing this to our attention.)

One can, if one wants, see connections between this research and the much earlier (and Ig Nobel Prize winning) study

“On the Comparative Palatability of Some Dry-Season Tadpoles from Costa Rica.” Richard Wassersug, The American Midland Naturalist, vol. 86, no. 1, July 1971, pp. 101-9.

Although scientists have failed to find evidence of contagious yawning in tortoises (though those scientists succeeded in winning an Ig Nobel Prize), other scientists have now found evidence, they say, of contagious yawning in budgies [a non-yawning specimen of which is pictured here in a photo by Elektrofisch]. They published a study about it:

“Evidence for contagious behaviors in budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus): An observational study of yawning and stretching.” Michael L. Miller, Andrew C. Gallup , Andrea R. Vogel, Shannon M. Vicario, Anne B. Clark, Behavioural Processes, Volume 89, Issue 3, March 2012, pp. 264–270.  The authors, at Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY, report:

“Yawning is contagious in humans and some non-human primates. If there are social functions to contagious behaviors, such as yawning, they might occur in other highly social vertebrates. To investigate this possibility, we conducted an observational study of yawning and an associated behavior, stretching, in budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus), a social, flock-living parrot…. This study provides the first detailed description of temporal patterns of yawning under social conditions in a flock-living species as well as the first support for contagious yawning and stretching in a non-primate species in a natural context. Experimental evidence will be necessary to confirm the extent of contagion in either behavior.”

(HT Dan Vergano)

Following Improbable’s recent note regarding Greenhouse gasses in a greenhouse, we ask : ‘How many patches of cow urine would a dentist need in order to perform a tooth extraction?’ The question is not as laughable as it might seem because Nitrous Oxide (or N₂O, or ‘laughing gas’) is produced in prodigious quantities worldwide by the natural degradation of animal wastes on agricultural land.
The US Environmental Protection Agency puts the figure for manure management emissions in the US alone at around 17 million metric tons per year (in CO₂ equivalents). Unfortunately, aside from its anaesthetic (and other*) uses, N₂O is also a powerful ‘greenhouse gas’ – and thus various strategies are proposed to limit its emissions. See for example: Biochar Incorporation into Pasture Soil Suppresses in situ Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Ruminant Urine Patches (published in the Journal of Environmental Quality. 2011 Mar-Apr;40(2):468-76.)

* Some other uses for N₂O are described:
• here (page 8 in the .pdf)
• here
• here and
• here

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In our continuing effort aimed at aiding the credibility and legitimacy of this subject, the ARMA’s presents it official panel of select consultants. This distinguished list of credentialed academics, historians, and distinguished professional experts in European arms and armor provides us with an unprecedented and unrivaled resource on which to rely on in our studies.

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